The news and herald. (Winnsboro, S.C.) 1877-1900, 1887-11-19
Tho Cave or seye sleepeps III 4 h1f.

"A correspond 18th the Anglo Rus
Sian Commission on ltlle.frontier. Of Az
glianistan sends thes following variant
upon the story of the Seven sleepers Of
Ephesus. Itseems that the grave Of
the Seven Sleepers, Which in the Koran
is located at Ephesus, is in reality in
the Hirak Valley, on the Afghan. from
tier, some four miles 10 the southwest
of the Anglo Russian damp at Chalipr
Samba. The version Of tho Koran
(says the correspondent is that seven
men, firm in their. faith in their own
God, separated from the rest iof their
tribe who had taken to other gods, and
taking refuge in a cave we're caused to
sleep there, with their dog, fer 300
years. The Eslans of IShwajah ,Altai
Azizan change the scene from Ephesus
to Turkestan, and tells very different
story. The King Dakianus, they say,
was originally u shepherd Of Shbhar-
CHAN, and tended his floeks in; the hills
for twelve years, till one day lie found
u slab Of stone with.aniinscription omit.
Not being able to deciplrer the latter,
he showed it to moollali, who told
him that it was u record OF hidden
treasure. Having possessed himself of
the treasure ana killed the moollah,
Dakianus took service with the king,
and after some time rose to the COM
mand Of an army. He soon got the
army on his side, seized the Kingdom,
and eventually conquered the world.
When thus in supreme power the devil
appeared before Dakianus iii tho form
OF the angel Gabriel, ahd tempted him
by telling him that God had sent him
to say that he was God Of tile heavens,
but that Dakianus was god Of the
earth. Daklanus, who was a worshipper
Of one God, refused to believe the devil,
and told the latter that lie was not. the
true. angel Gabriel. The.deyll then of.
ferred toprove that he was, by propos-
ing us u test, that If a scertain fish Ion
the top Of the water wSnt down upon
his approach he was tile true Gabriel,
but that if it remained up lie was; IAN
impostor. Accordingly .Dakianus and
the devil went together! to the bank Of
tho river, and no soonerdia the fish sec
the devil than it at once dived down.
Dakianus believed the test, Sacknowl-
edged the devil as angel Gabriel, lett
off tho worship of the trke God, ana at
the DEVILS tempting hi.ssSset himself up
as a god on his own account. One day,
however, when eating his food, Dalli-
anus was bothered by flies, which, do
what he would, lie could not get rid Of.
His servants said 10. themselves: 'He
calls himself God, and yet cannot even
get rid Of the flies that bother him. He
is no God" And they determined to
leave him. Six men went Off. and on
the second day fell in with Al shepherd,
from whom they begged bread and
water. The shepherd gave them all he
had, and asked them where they came
from and where they were going to.
They told him their story, ana how they
were fleeing from Dallianus and wished
to hide, and the shepherd agreed to ac-
company them in their flight. 4, The
shepherds dog also followed his master.
and the men told him to drive the dog
back lest he should betray their where
abouts. The shepherd objected, saying
the dog had been his faithful companion
for. years; but the others insisted, and
the shepherd at last struck the dog with
his stick, breaking one Of its legs. The
dog still followed, and thos shepherd
struck it again, breaking another leg,
but the dog still continued to crawl af-
ter them, and the men, struck with
pity, eventually took it in turns to carry
it on with them. Tho shepherd guided
them all to this very cave that he knew.
Of, and once there they went all to
sIeep, and never awoBe for 800 years.
In the Koran it is distinctly stated
that the sleepers were seven in numbers
and the eighth was their dog; but either
the Arabic Of the Koran is beyond the
Sayeds OF they prefer a story of their
own. Whichever it is, there is no
doubt Of the realism Of the latter por-
tlon Of their tale, us any one who
knows the affection the shepherds here
have for their great savage shaggy
coated dogs and the huge sticks that
the shepherds always carry will testify.
Further on i'll the story, however, the
worthy Sayeds got more confused still,
and they. have it that tho sleepers
awoke twice-once in the time of aIIaz-
rat Esa, or Christ, and again in the
time of the prophet. The story is,
they say, that when these three men
and tho shepherd awoko they felt hun
CRY and sent one Of their number to 60
to tho city, near by, called Shahr-i-Af-
soz, to buy bread. On arrival he found
the place much altered, and the first
baker lie went to refused to accept lis
money. Another to whom lie applied
asked him where he got his money
from. The man said that it was his
ownand from his own house. He was
then told to point out his house, but
could not at first, and eventually jrecog-
nized it by q mulberry tree, and, going
in, lie ted them !, to dig in a. certain.
place, and there they found, sure
enough, his store, q jar full Of Dalsi-
anus coins. The then owner of the
hnnen Orotnafod and olaiynoI tln ,o,,,n